The Power of Networking - Part 137

THE POWER OF NETWORKING

PART 137

By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting CC. November 2009

I see it all around me all of the time and quite frankly it was one of the reasons that I started this Networking blog in the first place. What on earth am she talking about, you must be wondering – well it’s quite simply this, all SMME’s/Entrepreneurs get caught up in the day to day running of their businesses and/or dealing with one crisis after another. This usually means that they often cannot see the wood for trees and then bad decisions are made with bad solutions being brought into place and these of course have really bad consequences.

We get lost in our own minds and head space and I have even, on occasion heard someone say that they felt ‘lonely’ in business. We get this whole mentality that it’s us against the world, us all on our lonesome! What about the “I am an island” syndrome – I wonder how many times I had to hear that particular phrase?

Here’s the thing though, we are not alone, much as we would often like to do the dramatic “woe is me” thing and play the ‘victim/martyr’ role. The reality is that we are really not alone. Every small business owner/entrepreneur out there has gone through/is going through/will go through, exactly what you and I are going through right now! How presumptuous of us to think that we are so completely special in the grand scheme of things, that we get to do things differently.

Not only are we not intrinsically different to every other SMME/Entrepreneur out there, but we also don’t have to try and do it on our own, even if we are the only person in our businesses. How’s that for a statement?

You see, that is the beauty of Networking. We can interact with others who are going through what we are going through – others from businesses that are completely different to ours and even others from businesses that are very similar if not the same as ours. We can learn from each other, we can learn together, we can brainstorm and find suitable solutions for ourselves and for others. We can share information and ideas and we can keep each other grounded.

We can look out for each other and be a guiding light when someone else loses their way and starts to feel alone.

This is one of the reasons that Networking, for me is one of the most powerful tools in my business.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za